Notes from Yogyakarta - Chen Chia-Jen Residency Sharing

“Sitting at the front of Cemeti Art House’s lobby, a scooter came with a express mail delivery, waiting to be received. Suddenly, I remember I never saw a mail box on the street. Every night, the Bali geckos sing with their bright voice, they are called ‘tokek’ in Indonesian, and ‘há jiè’ in Mandarin, these words all comes from the sound of their voice. The concept of ‘glomeration economy’ is everywhere in the city, the tyre-street, the shoe-street, the second-hand-book-street…; but what was surprising was a street full of trophy makers, do they have lots of competitions?

In the evening, a small vender serving with a small dim light sitting outside of tourist area - I find myself eating hot chicken fried rice sitting on the sidewalk. I cannot describe the visual presentation of the food, but the taste is quite good. Often I see chickens ‘wandering’ on the road. Just in front of the lobby, three white feathered chicken passing in front of me - one with purple able the neck, one with yellow, and one with green.

One day, I ate out, with a pile of white rice, a small piece of chicken wing, and a small serve of sweet tea for lunch. The locals told me it’s their KFC. One night I was searching for night supper, and had the real KFC in the busy streets, the basic meal is: a pile of white rice, a small piece of chicken wing, and a small cup of pepsi. I was convinced.

The art residency manager took out a light green egg one lunch, and peeled the shell, as expected we can see white egg-white and deep yellow egg-yolk - it’s salted egg! Even though I did not tasted it then, the magic of this scene is as if we’re looking at a piece of madeleine.”

This Sunday, Chen Chia-Jen’s sharing will not be focused on his art project during the residency. We put art aside, focus on life and experience.

OCAC is currently hosting some Indonesian artists, one of them was in residence at Cemeti during the same period as Chen. He often took Chen to travel to places where many international tourist won’t be going to. Maybe, we can share residency experience, along with an Indonesian translator; reviewing each of our understanding through photos of that time, and discuss various perspectives about our imaginations of different cultures, and fragments of everyday lives.

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Alternative Space? Artist-run Space? Alright, so today we have reached an understanding that “alternative space” has merely a historical connotation left, whereas “artist-run space” cuts directly to the chase, but still nothing is explained through these terms. We suggest a temporary halt on the investigation of terminology. The significance lies in what we do, what we did and what we will be doing next.

So what have you been up to? In short, we practice art and curate exhibitions. When able, we also organize forums, launch publications and initiate projects for international artistic exchange. If you haven’t the time to read the brief introduction on the back, all you need to remember is this: our job is to generate new dialogues between art and the public and to offer the world something different for a change, or at the very least, we try our best when making mistakes.

Why not simply focus on practicing art? It’s not that simple. In fact, there is no such thing as simply practicing art. Contemporary art and its viewers have broken away from the monotonous relationship of simply paying a visit to the museum. Whether people are aware of it or not, art has undoubtedly permeated into every aspect of our lives. Therefore, a genuine art practitioner would not shy away when met face to face with genuine public issues. We simply want to do it better.

Where does your funding come from? Unemployment subsidies. That was a joke. We operate with funds which come from our own pockets and occasional help from limited government funding—translation: we are often short of cash.

Are all members artists? We were founded as an artist-based organization, but are delighted to have recruited more and more members from interdisciplinary professions in recent years. As for the artists, you may still catch a glimpse of them from time to time carrying a spear and shield, riding a scrawny horse and followed around by a fox hound.

Can I join? Certainly, you are most welcome to join us. Please note, however, this is not a recruitment ad. Despite our wish to recruit more like-minded friends, we hope that all potential members first try to understand our situation before participating in anything. Acknowledgement of the process is in itself an important form of participation, which means that everything you imagine could be possible. In other words, we would love your attention starting from now.